


Untold Legends: Wani

by FiresFromOurHearts



Series: Uncharted Waters [18]
Category: Naruto
Genre: BAMF Nonbinary Character, Do you ever think about how some people didn't want to be part of a village?, First Shinobi War, Founding of Uzushiogakure, Gen, History, Legends, Nonbinary Character, Not very important in the long run though, OC Dies, Uzumaki Clan-centric, Uzushiogakure | Hidden Eddy Village, Warring States Period (Naruto), Worldbuilding, i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:54:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29970801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiresFromOurHearts/pseuds/FiresFromOurHearts
Summary: There was a ninja, many years ago, who changed the world. Made a legend because of their created seals, they shaped the world around and helped forged Uzushiogakure into a powerhouse. But they didn't start there. They didn't end there either.
Series: Uncharted Waters [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1875832
Kudos: 8





	Untold Legends: Wani

They’re fifteen when the three clans come together. Fifteen and the Uzumaki Clan are no longer wanderers. Like the rest of their clan, Yoshi heeds the call of their Clan Head, Karen Uzumaki.

Even as they watch incredible things happen like the islands rising from the sea, the world shuddering beneath the combined might of three clans, Uzu no Kuni being formed, they cannot help but miss what they once had. Miss the uncertainty of what lies ahead, miss the constant moving, miss the laughter and dancing in the rain.

Uzushiogakure becomes less of an idea and more of a concept being built, and Yoshi watches with eyes that long to be looking elsewhere.

Yoshi Uzumaki has always been a wanderer. It’s in their blood. They wandered around with their clan, and knew what their position was in life and in the clan. And now all of that has been stolen from them, snatched from their fingers. They will listen to Karen. She is their Clan Head, but they will remain watching, waiting for this to fall through, waiting for Uzushiogakure to fall, waiting to return back to the life they knew and lived for.

* * *

They’re sixteen and there are four clans now. The Takahashi Clan arrives with minimal fanfare—only two families, in fact, fleeing from the constant fighting elsewhere. Yoshi doesn’t know why they would come to Uzu no Kuni. The islands are boring and the village—Uzushiogakure—is awful.

They’re sixteen to the sound of a hungry stomach, to the restless spirit that resides within them, to the parched throat that comes from little water. They’re sixteen and hating the fact that their clan has been forced to settle, to stop their wandering ways. They hate the fact that there’s little farmland because there are no civilians. They hate that they cannot run free as they had once had, and can rarely leave the village alone—and never go to the mainland unless it’s for a mission.

They hate that Uzushiogakure is built by the sea, for their rivers are filled with salt water and, to get fresh water, a group has to go down to the nearest stream a day away and bring back enough water for a whole village.

They hate it all. But—most of all—they hate that they always get stuck on water duty.

Yoshi wants to leave. Wants to run and run and run and never look back. They have no life here, don’t want one, and it’s such an awful thing, to hate where you live. They’re sixteen. _Sixteen_ and they hate it all.

So they decide to change things. Maybe they can’t leave, can’t run and never look back, can’t go unless they leave the clan completely. But that doesn’t mean they have no choices. Some things they hate they can change. Yoshi is a fūinjutsu master and knows water. They know chakra can pull water from the atmosphere and begin trying to create a seal that does the same.

They try and they fail. They fail so, so many times—but they succeed eventually. They _succeed_. They’re sixteen and a legend is starting to be created about a kunoichi who revolutionised the sealing industry.

They’re sixteen and their village applauds them, grants them fame and love. They’re sixteen and they solve one of the major issues within their society—they give fresh water to a place they hate. It doesn’t change the fact that they hate Uzushiogakure, but… but it makes things better, slightly.

They don’t belong, but there are worse places to be.

* * *

They’re nineteen when they form a new seal—this one specific to Uzushio. It allows salt water to be converted to fresh water, allowing the salt water around them to be filtered and made into something useable. Once again, the world changes around them as a result. Once again, they’re applauded for their ability.

They can now taste freedom on their tongue, can cut their teeth on chakra that rises and grows and call it their own.

Yoshi’s feelings towards Uzushio remain the same. They don’t hate it anymore, but their dislike is still there and they don’t think that it will ever change. But—they can move around a bit more. The leash that ties them back is longer. Now they go on missions alone and even those to the mainland.

Uzushio isn’t home, but the Uzumaki Clan Compound begins to feel like it. It’s not the wandering Yoshi’s used to and they’re not sure how to really live in one place, even after four years, but… But people with stories still come into Uzushio and share their stories. The people always seem to be new and unfamiliar and it’s exciting. These are some of the things Yoshi misses and they’re glad to be able to find it here.

That doesn’t mean they don’t still wish Uzushio didn’t exist and Uzu no Kuni had never been pulled from the sea however.

* * *

At twenty, the world changes. Or maybe the world doesn’t change—Yoshi changes and it feels like their entire world shakes with new realisations. The foundations crumble beneath them—but they don’t. They don’t because there are safety nets and hands stretching out to catch them, and they stand again.

They’re twenty and now they use their seals and their water ninjutsu whenever they can. They fight by calling litres of water to them, flood everywhere, forming tsunamis on dry land to decimate their enemies.

Yoshi stands strong and tall and proud and they dare the world to fight them.

They send tonnes of water rushing at their enemies, and listen to the call of the ocean; it’s hungry, echoing call in the back of their mind. For this, for their fighting and their water-based sealing and water ninjutsu, they are called Wani.

It’s a nice moniker and they like it. It’s a good moniker and a good name, and Yoshi’s legend continues to grow.

So Yoshi continues to give everything they are and- and they realise that they do like Uzushio. Uzushio has formed them. It has given them this—the water at their fingertips, the seals they built themself on, the legend that falls over her and feels like wings.

But just because Uzushio is free from fighting and that there’s tentative peace, doesn’t mean it will last. In fact, it doesn’t. There is a war on the horizon and Yoshi can feel it coming with a tremble in her bones. It feels like an uncontrolled tsunami hurtling towards them.

* * *

They fight. Of course, they do. For Uzushio, for their home, for their people.

On the frontlines, they bare their teeth and dare their enemies to come at them. They’re given a wide berth by their fellow ninjas, but only because getting too close when they call on their water jutsus is a bit too dangerous for those not used to it.

When they fight, they’re backed up and they fight with everything they have. Yoshi calls down gallons of water, allowing it to crush those around them and sweep them away. They shape the water, creating lakes and creating tsunamis. They wreak havoc and, throughout it all, they live.

Yoshi fights, but the main thing is they survive.

The war batters and bruises and scars all those who fight, all those who join the war efforts in one way or another. But the Uzushio-nins fight on. They don’t pause, don’t give in, just keep laying down seals and sending their enemies home either running or as corpses.

Uzushio comes out of the war alive and Yoshi does the same. They’re battered and hurting, but they’re _alive_. And they come back home and realise they had been homesick the whole time—not for their wandering home or constantly moving, but for Uzushio. For the Uzumaki Clan Compound, for the people, for the harbour, for the village that is in a fixed location.

They had missed Uzushio and they hadn’t expected that. They hadn’t thought they could love Uzushio—but Yoshi does. They love Uzushio and would for the village if it was ever needed. This is what Uzushio does to them and they love the village for it.

And this is the end of Yoshi Uzumaki, Wani, as a legend. They go out on mission after mission, water answering their beck and call. They wreak havoc and create new lakes and rivers, calling water down from the heavens and up from the earth.

They are far from their fifteen-year-old self that knew little of life and hated the village due to restrictions placed on them to keep them safe and alive. They’re far from their sixteen-year-old self changing the seal industry and helping their village, despite thinking they hated it. They’re far from nineteen and struggling to keep going and doing something. They’re far from twenty, and recognised as a water ninjutsu specialist who could call water to them—even in a desert.

Here is what the legend will not say: Yoshi Uzumaki goes out on one mission at the age of thirty-five, and never returns. They are assumed dead, weeks after they do not come back. They are mourned. They are remembered. And life goes on.

Here is what Uzushio never knew: there was a man named Danzō involved. They die at the age of thirty-five, tortured but refusing to say anything about Uzushio. They love their village and will protect it. But their seals? Less important. More known, as well. Yoshi feeds little bits of information, twists them slightly. This will not be important for years, not until Danzō dies and Uzushio reaches out to Sunagakure in an alliance.

But that is the future and the things Uzushio will never know. Here is what matters: Yoshi Uzumaki lived.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't have much to say at the moment, but here's Yoshi Uzumaki who was mentioned a while ago! I never really got to expand on the whole ROOT aspect of their legend since it was never known, which is largely how this part came about.


End file.
